Hi.  I'm so excited!  I'm 44 years old, and always thought I had totally straight hair.  Well, this weekend I discovered I have waves under the top layer in the back.  Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I just can't imagine why I never noticed it before.  I guess because the top layer looks straight, and it seems to be only in the back, mostly on the left side.

I developed waves as I got older.  My hair was stick straight the last time I had long hair.  I cut it off when I was about 29 and did not grow it out again until my mid-40's.  I have definate waves now.  (Note:  my avatar shows braid waves - those are not natural!!)

Are the waves all over your hair?  I would think the length of your hair would pull out the wave.  Of course for us with fine hair, it isn't that heavy.

Most of the wave is the underside and my neck.  But in the past year, I've noticed waves in the front as well.  The more damaged hair at the ends does not have any wave - I'm sure the chemicals took care of them :(  

Here's a picture showing my hair after it has air-dried.
http://www.tarsk.com/Robin/tn/2004_08_dry.jpg

Check out the Curly Girl book, it will give you lots of good advice on how to care for your waves, and how to give some curl to your top.
I've always had mine, and the top layer of my hair is generally stick straight.  However, as my top layer approaches shoulder length the wave shows up with scrunching (and gel).
My hairdresser says most people have some wave and that it's usually at the nape of the neck.
Enjoy your waves-I show mine off by doing a half pony with variations (and LL Hairstix!!) and I love it ;D
Good Luck!

I started getting a wave on the back of my head during my second pregnancy  ???  Before that I had the stick straight hair that wouldn't hold a curl for 15 minutes (really, during a high school play I would use a curling iron  :o just before going on stage, by the time I got on stage, the curl was falling out!)  
Since my second pregnancy (that son is 19 now) my hair seems to hold curls much better and several waves have developed - of course never really where I want them ::)  Weirdness ;D

My hair has gotten wavier since I discovered the boards
last May.  I noticed it especially this summer in the humidity.  I live in the upper Midwest USA
I thinks its due to either:
1) better care of my hair with better products(less harsh)
2.) Hormones ( I'm in my late 40's)
3.) I quit permiing my hair over 4 years ago and have stopped colouring and the real texture of my hair is starting to come out.  
Either way, I like it!  The wave gets more pronounce as my hair goes below shoulder length.  My hair is much straighter in a chin length bob.  In a chin length bob, I would have classified my hair as 1b according to Fia's
tying system  Now I classify it as a 2a.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies.  I'm so excited about this because my hair was always so straight and baby-fine.  I always thought if I had some wave it might look like more hair.  My Dad's whole family had curly hair, but I never thought I got any of it.  I would like to bring out the wave more on the top layer.  I wish I had some in my bangs, and on the sides, but I'm thrilled with what I've got.

It's been two years since I got my last perm, so I know it's not perm I'm seeing.  I have had three children, and I'm 44, so maybe it's hormones.

Lisa

A late response, but I just wanted to pitch in...  :D I have also been seeing more wave. The longer my hair gets, the wavier it feels/is.

Anais

Yeah, My stylist also told me that some people's hair is
like that, the wave doesn't come out till it gets longer, the
shape of the hair shaft maybe? Straight to ear or chin level than curls up past shoulders?
My hair is much more moisturized than it used to be a year ago, too, I'm sure that's part of it!

Yes, I have to make sure not to let it dry out.  Especially in this cold dry air we have now.  I put mousse on it this morning for the first time to see if I would get more wave, and I did!  I can't believe this is the same hair I always thought was straight!  I guess I didn't see the wave because I've had it short and permed for years.

I will try to post a picture of my hair here.  Air dried and not combed.  No products on it.

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/lmreddin/lhead3.jpg

[/img]

I don't think it worked, did it?

Lisa

Sorry - it didnt work.  Be sure that your link has "[ img ]"  preceeding the address and "[ /img ]" is after the link.  (The spaces would need to be removed - I put them in so they can be seen.)

It looks like you somehow got the img tag inside your address, and the address is incomplete.  If you post just the link to the picture, maybe we can help.

Okay.  I'll try again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v644/lmreddin/lhead3.jpg

Yaaaa!  You figured it out!  Great picture!

Thanks, Bikerbraid.

Lisa

Very pretty waves!

I'm amazed more and more.  With each additional inch of growth, I'm seeing more waves.  I'm really thrilled with it!

Babyfine, your hair sounds SO much like mine!

SF

Hi SF!  Yes, i've noticed more waves since I found the boards last May.  I think the years of perming and colouring masked my true hair texture, OR it's waving instead of frizzing like it used to do.  I only shampoo once a week with a sulfate based poo, the rest of the time I CO or use a non sulfate poo like creme of Nature.
I had very wavy (2b/c , I would guess) hair in high school.  Then I moved out to a desert climate and it straightened and got thinner( I thought) in my 20's so I started perming it and kept that up for years.  I also think the permanent colour might relax the curl a little bit.  I think my hair is a t least a 2a by now.  I wonder if that's a reason why my hair is soooo fragile, it's not only fine but also has the wave/curl thing going on.  I'm really fighting getting about 3 inches of roots touched up with colour right now, I want to see my hairs natural texture but I can't stand the little greys coming in(Not that there's anything wrong with grey) just on me- I'm so pale already.  The greys are courser!! Does that mean I'll have a thicker head of hair?Since my nat. coulour is med. brown they show up too much against my darker roots.   I've thought about henna but I'm just not ready for that plunge right now.

I think my hair is about 18" by now.  I'm hoping to see more waves, also, as it grows out.  Hoping the weight of the hair won't straighten them out.  It does seem to have the most wave at the ends.

Hiya! :)

My 19-year-old sister has wavy hair, and it's fun because sometimes she'll get these little curly hairs under all the wave. She recently cut most of it off (I haven't seen it yet because she's down south), so there's no more curl underneath, but yeah, it was really cool! Before that, her hair was pretty straight; we never thought she'd have curl.

My own hair has been curly forever, though I notice that it tends to change once in a while. My hair stylist-person actually said that hormones shift every 7 years in most people, hence a change in how the hair is constructed. This may be what's happening (or has happened). Mine's that way; for a few years it's had a coarse, almost African-American texture to it, but in the past couple of years it's been soft and fine.

Who knows, but waves/curls are AWESOME! ;D

My hair was fairly straight until I hit 13. Then it became frizzier and very wavy. I hated it at first which was ironic since until then I'd always wanted curly or wavy hair. I learned how to deal with it and I love it now!

My hair was always so straight that my mom could spend an hour curling it, and it would fall out practically before I got out the front door.  When I was in college, I shaved my head.  It was about 1/4 -1/2" all over.  I really loved it for a while, but I had to maintain it about once every 2 weeks.  

I decided I wanted long hair again and just stopped getting it shaved.  By the time it got to my chin, it was doing this godawful flip thing at the ends and I just thought it looked really dumb.  My friend used to iron it for me to make it straight again.  ;D

As it got longer and longer, the waves became more and more pronounced.  At first, I did not like them and wanted my straight hair back, I kept ironing them out for about a year.  But now I just love my waves!  I have very thick, but also very fine hair, so the waves give it more body and make it look more full.  When it is drying, the locks of hair spiral, but the spirals pretty much disappear into waves when I comb out my dry hair.  My mom has naturally very curly hair, so I guess it just took a while for my hair to decide to curl.

OMG :o :o that's exactly what happened to me Sasha- well except for the shaving thing- once I hit puberty :P my hair kept getting frizzier and frizzier, first i thought that my hair was damaged and ugly, so i kept it in braids and buns for almost 3 YEARS :o and then......... I FOUND THIS SITE! :D

and now I love my waves too :-*


p.s. my mom also has naturally curly hair too